Wednesday 8 July 2015

UNISON | Budget shuts public sector workers out of the recovery, says UNISON

Budget shuts public sector workers out of the recovery, says UNISON

Responding to the Chancellor’s Budget Statement today (Wednesday) UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis said:

“Capping wages at a miserly one per cent for four more years for public sector workers will hasten the reluctant exit of many dedicated staff from our hospitals, schools and local councils.

“The economy is growing yet public servants remain shut out of the recovery. Despite bearing the brunt of austerity, they are to keep paying the price for the reckless behaviour of the banks.

“Britain won’t have public services fit for 21st century needs, unless wages for public servants are high enough to attract the best recruits. Pay austerity might be over for MPs but it’s set to continue for many more years for everyone else in the public sector.

“An hourly rate of £7.20 is not a living wage. George Osborne’s announcement might look attractive at first glance but as tax credits are cruelly snatched away – leaving many workers £1,200 worse off – he’s simply giving to the low-paid with one hand and taking away with the other.

“An independently set living wage already exists, and its higher rate assumes the full take up of in-work benefits. Renaming the minimum wage will mean fewer employers will feel obliged to pay staff any more than the law requires them to.”

Media Release From UNISON UK

Protecting Public Services

UNISON, Scotland’s public service union tells MSPs that Scotland's public services are living through a lost decade as a consequence of austerity economics and we can do more to protect public services.

 

Tomorrow (Tuesday 13 January 2015) the Scottish Parliament will debate protecting public services. UNISON Scotland's briefing to MSP's draws from our recent report 'Austerity Economics Don't Add Up', which charts the impact austerity economics is having on Scotland’s public services and the staff who deliver them.

 

In addition, UNISON has identified some common themes for MSPs from recent UNISON surveys of public service staff. They flag up consequences that are not often recognised including:

 

• The impact of cuts on service delivery and in particular on the most vulnerable in our communities. Social care is a particular concern with a race to the bottom in provision.
• Corners are being cut to give the impression that services are being maintained. Whether its food sampling, inspections, hospital cleaning or the time elderly people are allocated for basic care.
• Core infrastructure is collapsing while staff patch and mend. Sticking plasters won’t last forever.
• Preventative work is being abandoned as staff focus on the basic statutory functions.
• Moving staff around to manage one crisis after another. ‘Keeping the plates spinning’ is a very common comment from staff.
• Growing levels of stress and related health issues. A particular challenge for what is becoming an ageing workforce due to recruitment freezes.
• Delayering of structures results in quite junior staff having to take decisions, without adequate support from more senior and experienced staff.
• Cuts in support staff and administration results in front line staff having to spend more time on paperwork - exacerbated by outdated or inadequate IT systems.
• Increased aggression and violence from service users, frustrated by service cuts and delays.

 

UNISON Scotland’s Head of Bargaining and Campaigns, Dave Watson said:

“The overwhelming response from staff is that it’s bad now, but they believe it’s going to get worse. This is happening at a time when public service wages have been slashed in real terms placing significant personal pressures on staff.”

 

“We urge MSP's to recognise that there is a better way. Of course the driving force for austerity comes from the UK coalition government, but Holyrood doesn’t always make good choices. What is needed is the political will to challenge the view that austerity is necessary and to put in place better policies that deliver for all our communities.”

 

Notes to editor

 

1.    UNISON is Scotland’s largest trade union. The MSP Briefing can be viewed here: http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/briefings/MSPe-briefing_PublicServices_Jan2015.pdf 

2.    Our report 'Austerity Economics Don't Add Up' can be viewed here: http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/publicworks/AusterityEconomics_Oct2014.pdf

3.    Examples of the occupational surveys can be viewed on our Public Works page: http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/publicworks/index.html

 

For more information contact:

 ·         Dave Watson, UNISON’s head of bargaining and campaigns, 0141 342 2840 or 07958122409

Young workers vanishing from the public sector, says UNISON

Tuesday 14 January 2014

Young people are the biggest losers of public service job cuts as figures reveal the number of young workers has fallen by a quarter.

Workforce data published by Audit Scotland shows there are 1,545 people aged under 20-years-old working in Scotland’s public services, down 25 per cent since 2009.

The cuts have led to an ageing workforce. In 2013, the average age was 44 years and four months, compared with 43 years and nine months in 2009. With nearly 40 per cent retiring in the next 10-15 years – although the reality is many will leave sooner – there is a very real concern of serious skills shortages across the public sector.

Workforce takes the brunt of spending cuts

Audit Scotland’s report on the public sector workforce shows that workers are taking the brunt of spending cuts through job losses and real term pay cuts.

Since the high point before the financial crash the public sector workforce in Scotland (excluding financial sector) has fallen by 48,700 people - 5,500 in the last year alone.

At least £1bn has been slashed from staffing budgets and that doesn’t reflect the real term pay cuts all staff have suffered. While many older staff have retired early, recruitment freezes mean younger staff are not being recruited and the workforce is getting older.

The report also recognises that boards and elected members may need to prioritise services and identify if service cuts are necessary. The salami slicing approaches identified in the report cannot go on indefinitely.

Workforce planning at all levels is not as good as it should be and UNISON has long argued that there needs to be a national workforce framework in Scotland.

UNISON Scottish Organiser Dave Watson said:

“This report clearly shows that it is public service workers that have born the brunt of cuts in the ideological drive to slash public services. Those staff who remain are facing increasing workloads and associated stress while they seek to maintain a service to the public. We agree that better workforce planning at Scottish and local level can help, but it’s only a sticking plaster on the gaping holes that are developing in service provision.”

ENDS

Note for editors:
The job loss numbers above are larger than those in the report because Audit Scotland have used a formula to convert the headcount numbers in the Scottish Government workforce statistics into whole time equivalents. Both are correct, but we prefer to focus on actual workers.

For further information please contact:
Dave Watson, UNISON Scottish Organiser, on 07958 122 409

UNISON Scotland Website / Blog / Twitter  / Facebook / Public Works blog

UNISON House, 14 West Campbell Street, Glasgow G2 6RX.

Tel: 0845 355 0845 Fax: 0141 342 2835  

UNISON Scotland calls for massive investment in social housing

Thu 6 June 2013

Launch of new housing policy document Making Homes for a Fairer Scotland

Housing services union UNISON has today called for a massive investment in social housing to make the homes we need for a fairer Scotland.

The union’s new policy discussion paper Making Homes for a Fairer Scotlandargues that social housing is key to reducing poverty and inequality, and their long-term effects on health and wellbeing – along with an enforceable system of rent control, improved regulation of landlords and decent housing standards.

Public services paying the price of austerity job cuts

Date: Thu 23 May 2013

UNISON Scotland response to Audit Scotland report on ‘early leavers’

UNISON Scotland has called for an end to the ongoing massive public service job cuts which cost hundreds of millions of pounds and devastate local economies.

In response to a report by Audit Scotland on the price of early retirement and severance the union argues that its alternative to austerity would boost the economy and protect vital public services.

Mike Kirby, UNISON’s Scottish Secretary, said:
“While the Audit Scotland report makes some positive noises about the way public bodies manage workforce change, the reality is that our precious public services are paying the price of austerity economics.

“Audit Scotland reveal that the cost of removing 14,000 jobs from the public sector in just two years was £561 million. And that’s the tip of an iceberg.

“We know that over 50,000 jobs have gone from the public sector in Scotland since greedy bankers caused the crash in 2008.

“Why should jobs and services go when the need still exists?”

UNISON has consistently argued for an alternative to austerity economics. Growing our way out of trouble: UNISON's alternative budget for jobs and public services published in March says:

• on average every redundancy creates £29,400 in additional costs to the public sector as well as undermining morale and productivity
• most of the cost of employing a public service worker is recouped by the state through increased tax revenues and reduced benefit payments
• economic research shows that for every pound spent on local public services, 64 pence is re-spent in local economies, supporting jobs and businesses

Lilian Macer, Convener of UNISON Scotland added:

“Every job lost costs the local economy dear – and piles stress on vital public services as a decreasing workforce faces mounting pressure to meet increasing need.

“Every new piece of evidence supports our call for an alternative to austerity. We need to grow our way out of trouble – and not carry on cutting jobs and vital public services at massive cost to our communities and the public purse.”

ends

Notes for editors

1. UNISON is Scotland’s largest trade union representing 160,000 members working to deliver vital public services.

2. UNISON Scotland’s e-Briefing - Public Sector Workforce in Scotlandpublished in Dec 2012 gives details on the cuts to public sector jobs since the crash in 2008
http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/briefings/e-briefing_PublicSectorWorkforce_Dec2012.pdf

3. Growing our way out of trouble: UNISON’s alternative budget for jobs and public services was published in March 2013 – see news release here:
http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/
pressrelease_view.asp?id=3002

and the full alternative budget document here:
http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/18887.pdf

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Labour will have 'no hope' in 2015 unless it gets bolder, says Unison chief

The Guardian - Friday 14 December 2012 

Dave Prentis says UK's biggest public sector union is prepared to strike on issue of pay and party needs to get onside

Andrew Sparrow, political correspondent
www.guardian.co.uk,
Friday 14 December 2012 17.17 GMT

The leader of the UK's largest public sector union has accused Labour of "avoiding all the big issues" and said the party will have "no hope" at the general election unless it adopts much stronger anti-austerity policies.

Dave Prentis, the Unison general secretary, said Labour should go into the election promising to abandon public service cuts and to ensure that all public sector workers receive at least the living wage.

In an interview with the Guardian, he also said he expected public sector workers to take more strike action in the future, probably over pay.

Although he was broadly positive about Ed Miliband's leadership, Prentis, whose union represents 1.3m workers, making it the largest in the public sector, criticised the opposition for being too cautious.

• Read the full interview with Dave Prentis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/dec/14/labour-no-hope-dave-prentis-union


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Unemployment figures - UNISON response

Wed 12 Dec 2012
“The loss of another 24,000 jobs from the public  sector in the last quarter alone spells a bleak Christmas for those families and for families relying on vital NHS and local council services” said Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary today.

The UNISON chief went on to say:

“We know that the Government plans to cut more public sector jobs in the New Year.  The Olympic and Christmas boost has given some welcome short-term relief to the unemployed, but the Government must act now to create sustainable growth and jobs. “

ENDS

Unemployment in the regions between August and October was:

Region             Total unemployment     Change on quarter    Percentage rate

North East         123,000                minus 11,000          9.5%

North West         298,000                minus 18,000          8.6%

Yorkshire/Humber   243,000                minus 29,000          8.8%

East Midlands      184,000                minus 8,000           8.0%

West Midlands      236,000                minus 1,000           8.7%

East of England    216,000                plus 15,000           6.9%

London             382,000                plus 5,000            9.0%

South East         283,000                no change             6.3%

South West         155,000                plus 2,000            5.7%

Wales              117,000                minus 15,000          7.9%

Scotland           204,000                minus 19,000          7.6%

Northern Ireland   68,000                 minus 3,000           7.8%

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Public sector pay premium: nailing the myth - UNISON

Thu 22 Nov 2012
UNISON, the UK’s largest union said that the latest figures from the ONS on the public / private sector pay divide were in danger of being used out of context to peddle a myth that public sector workers are overpaid for the same work as those in the private sector.

Across the public sector, workers such as hospital cleaners, cooks and porters or home care and residential care workers have been contracted out of the public sector, but still work in it.  These lowest paid privatised jobs are counted as private sector workers - skewing the pay figures.

Where public sector workers do get paid more, it is a reflection of the professional training necessary to carry out their jobs such as teachers and social workers or reflect high paid jobs such as army generals, judges and senior civil servants.

UNISON assistant general secretary Karen Jennings said:

“It is time that we nailed the myth of public sector workers enjoying a pay premium once and for all.  The opposite is true as they have been hit hard by the Government’s pay freeze and many are fighting an uphill battle just to make ends meet.

“The great divide that the government would like us all to believe exists is a fallacy; their disastrous economic policies are the reason workers and their families across the UK are struggling.  It is the old trick of divide and conquer to justify yet more swingeing cuts to the public sector and it must be challenged and exposed at every opportunity.”

A new factsheet from the union on this very issue highlights the key points that it said were frequently missing from the analysis of public / private sector pay, including:

The impact of outsourcing:A high proportion of the lowest-paid public sector workers have been outsourced. A catering assistant in an NHS hospital for example, will be counted as a private sector worker

The number of professional staff:Many public sector roles, including those relating to healthcare delivery, education and the emergency services require workers to have specific professional training. Average pay in the public sector reflects the specialism needed for many of these roles.

The cost of bonuses:Neither the Labour Force Survey (LFS) nor the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) data covers the main bonus period in the private sector, which can exaggerate the ‘pay premium’ of the public sector.
 ENDS


UNISON UK press release:
http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=2891


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